![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Blurb On The Back:
”The Devil is coming to your house.”
Crazy words begin a gripping story of madness, demons and death. Home from the sea, a boy’s uncle entrances him with tales of life aboard ship and of foreign lands. Soon the boy decides to join his uncle on his next voyage.
A violent storm blows the ship off course and the crew find themselves marooned in a sea of ice. As their despair grows, an albatross seems to befriend them and restore their hope. But seized by an evil madness, the uncle kills the great bird with his crossbow, and so condemns all on board to unimaginable horrors, of which life in death is the greatest …
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Chris Priestley’s YA dark and gothic novel is a retelling of THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. However while Priestley does well in depicting the awful circumstances in which the sailors find themselves, the characters are too thinly drawn for the reader to empathise with. In particular the decision not to name the boy makes it difficult to relate to him and he is largely confined to being a witness who at best reacts to events rather than drives them. The biggest problem though is that the uncle remains an enigma whose motives are never fully explained or even explored. Although the book is faithful to the original text it offers nothing new to it and as such, while it’s an okay read it isn’t a great one.
THE DEAD MEN STOOD TOGETHER was released in the United Kingdom on 12th September 2013. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
Crazy words begin a gripping story of madness, demons and death. Home from the sea, a boy’s uncle entrances him with tales of life aboard ship and of foreign lands. Soon the boy decides to join his uncle on his next voyage.
A violent storm blows the ship off course and the crew find themselves marooned in a sea of ice. As their despair grows, an albatross seems to befriend them and restore their hope. But seized by an evil madness, the uncle kills the great bird with his crossbow, and so condemns all on board to unimaginable horrors, of which life in death is the greatest …
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Chris Priestley’s YA dark and gothic novel is a retelling of THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. However while Priestley does well in depicting the awful circumstances in which the sailors find themselves, the characters are too thinly drawn for the reader to empathise with. In particular the decision not to name the boy makes it difficult to relate to him and he is largely confined to being a witness who at best reacts to events rather than drives them. The biggest problem though is that the uncle remains an enigma whose motives are never fully explained or even explored. Although the book is faithful to the original text it offers nothing new to it and as such, while it’s an okay read it isn’t a great one.
THE DEAD MEN STOOD TOGETHER was released in the United Kingdom on 12th September 2013. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
